Innocent desire blossoms into a romance for the ages in this 2007 adaptation of the bestselling novel by Nobel Prize–winning author Gabriel García Márquez. At the turn of the 19th century, poetry-writing telegraph operator Florentino Ariza (Unax Ugalde) spots the stunning and sheltered Fermina Daza (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) and immediately falls in love. Denied by her father (John Leguizamo), Florentino refuses to give up his dream of winning her hand—even if it means waiting decades. Benjamin Bratt plays the doctor who treats Fermina for cholera and then marries her. Javier Bardem portrays the mature Florentino, now a man of wealth and privilege.